TheFirstMichael2206
This review may contain spoilers
Futile fights of Y
The show promises to expose the dark underbelly of BL industry. But with examples that are convincing just enough to make you overlook some of the obviously fake drama, it's not exactly a cold hard truth people might expect. And while the first two stories do a good job of balancing the social commentary, conflicting characters and the sweet Y fanservice that pays their bills, later half of this series is more of your standard petty drama with pacing issues and questionable script. If you're looking for a social justice, you won't find it here. If you instead want to feel disillusioned with the same system you partake in to support your favorite shows, the first 10 episodes are more than enough. And for some, maybe a little too much. Trigger warnings not applicable, since they would ruin the whole point of this show. Just be extra careful with it.
My main take from this long ass BL of ours is - very good premise, progressively more lacking execution. It focuses mostly on multiple personal conflicts, which (no matter how refreshing in setup) are fairly mediocre in thai BL script writing. Adding to it AIS PLAY's renowned disinterest in international audience and questionable editing skills, you might end up with something that's significantly more challenging than rewarding. Ultimately, I wasn't satisfied with my investment in it. Ending episodes of each story tend to be either rushed or underwhelming, which really soured the mood for me. Overall quality of stories goes steadily down with each new segment.
The first one is (aside from the ending) almost perfect, easily getting a strong 9.0 score. It can be scary and make you sick to your stomach, but it's also oddly cathartic at the end. Even if a bit unnaturally so.
The second part is still very clever, with yet another underwhelming ending. As is customary in eastern media, villains aren't really punished for their transgressions. Especially where seniority plays a role. You can add victim blaming to that list, too. But life isn't always pretty, so it deserves at least 8 or 8.5 out of 10 points.
Third one is... calm? Basic? While it manages to keep up with the darker, messy tone at the start, it quickly devolves into mushy nothing and only slightly picks up at the end. It doesn't feel like it wants to tell something, nor does it manage to do so by accident. It's pretty though, and I like openly messy plotlines. Shame it didn't amount to something more. I'd give it an 8/10 if it were a standalone, here it's more of a 7.5 in comparisson with previous stories.
The last part, however, was a major disappointment. It lacked message, clear direction and conflict for the vast majority of time. The ending was both rushed and underwhelming. It showed an idea of good conflict, but utterly failed to deliver on it. Instead of neatly tying the whole thing up at the end, it made some awkward knots and called it a bow. It's barely worth a 7 at this state, but let's do a 7.5 for the bigger picture.
Overall score - generous 8.5 out of 10. I don't think it's a show you would want to binge, though.
While the stories are slightly connected, only adjacent ones have enough overlap to warrant watching them in intended order. The link is weakest between second and third story in my opinion, strongest between part 3 and 4. Which leads me to recommend watching WoY in these possible orders, based on my preference: (gagaoolala version has better translations)
1. Watch only the first 2 stories, episodes 1 - 10. They are dark, messy, unpredictable and icky in all the entertaining ways.
2. Watch only the first story, episodes 1-5. Second story expands a bit on the first one, but it's more of an alternative run of similar situation and doesn't add that much more to the overall creeps.
3. Watch the first two stories, take a break, then watch story 3 (episodes 1-10, 11-15). The later one is significantly more light, more petty, and less well-thought-out. It's still an okay watch, though.
4. Watch only for the main CP(s) you're interested in - episodes 1-5 for Billy-Seng, 6-10 for Gung-Korn, 11-15 for Mark-Milk and 11-20 for Toru-First (characters of Toru and First are very present in episodes 11-15, but their relationship starts developing from the episode 16 onwards.)
5. Add story 4 to option 3 (episodes 1-10, 11-20), mainly if you are interested in Toru-First relationship.
6. Watch all episodes in the order they were released in, slowly. Some of you might be completionists, but be careful not to rush it. It's quite a heavy watch on its own, mainly because of the darker themes and bad editing/translation choices.
7. Watch only the later two stories, starting with episode 11. I'd only recommend this for people who tried the first story and it was too much for them (emotionally speaking).
Some other remaks about the show, might be minor spoilers:
I was surprised by the DMD cameos/promos/god knows what it was. It didn't fit there in my opinion. I'm biased against the company, so you might not care about it much. But it was an odd choice that affected the stories either way.
It was a missed opportunity not to actually create the twitter polls from @GossipXoxo user as the show was releasing. One thing this show does really well is representing how online fandoms act, and I'm genuinely interested the polls' results from real life fans. It would also be a quirky marketing move that would have cost them next to nothing.
Situation about the translations was messy, even after both AIS PLAY and Gagaoolala starting translating text messages. Often there was too much text, for too short of a period to read it. Which is something that should have been tweaked in editing, especially for important parts. It was exhausting pausing the screen all the time, and rewinding, and even google translating at the start. Some of it was just useless banter, but a lot of it included context that was sorely missing otherwise. If they want to do a story where (social) media plays a crucial role, they need to do better next time.
In conclusion, the series lacks in bigger picture one would expect from their pointed marketing as the whistle-blower. Even if all of those situations actually happened in real life, the show didn't serve as a call to action in any way. It contradicts its own "messages" profoundly, so much you'll even start to wonder what those messages are. And it's not doing it in a clever way! Just plainly confusing, almost alibistic, none insulting and still money earning one. Its aim is shattered on multiple places by separated endings and obscured by bad editing and translation issues. In a way, it's kinda disappointing, considering what it could have been. But it still manages to be an above average and somehow unique BL show, and one I recommend at least trying. If the first story feels too dark or messy for you, give story 3 a chance ?
My main take from this long ass BL of ours is - very good premise, progressively more lacking execution. It focuses mostly on multiple personal conflicts, which (no matter how refreshing in setup) are fairly mediocre in thai BL script writing. Adding to it AIS PLAY's renowned disinterest in international audience and questionable editing skills, you might end up with something that's significantly more challenging than rewarding. Ultimately, I wasn't satisfied with my investment in it. Ending episodes of each story tend to be either rushed or underwhelming, which really soured the mood for me. Overall quality of stories goes steadily down with each new segment.
The first one is (aside from the ending) almost perfect, easily getting a strong 9.0 score. It can be scary and make you sick to your stomach, but it's also oddly cathartic at the end. Even if a bit unnaturally so.
The second part is still very clever, with yet another underwhelming ending. As is customary in eastern media, villains aren't really punished for their transgressions. Especially where seniority plays a role. You can add victim blaming to that list, too. But life isn't always pretty, so it deserves at least 8 or 8.5 out of 10 points.
Third one is... calm? Basic? While it manages to keep up with the darker, messy tone at the start, it quickly devolves into mushy nothing and only slightly picks up at the end. It doesn't feel like it wants to tell something, nor does it manage to do so by accident. It's pretty though, and I like openly messy plotlines. Shame it didn't amount to something more. I'd give it an 8/10 if it were a standalone, here it's more of a 7.5 in comparisson with previous stories.
The last part, however, was a major disappointment. It lacked message, clear direction and conflict for the vast majority of time. The ending was both rushed and underwhelming. It showed an idea of good conflict, but utterly failed to deliver on it. Instead of neatly tying the whole thing up at the end, it made some awkward knots and called it a bow. It's barely worth a 7 at this state, but let's do a 7.5 for the bigger picture.
Overall score - generous 8.5 out of 10. I don't think it's a show you would want to binge, though.
While the stories are slightly connected, only adjacent ones have enough overlap to warrant watching them in intended order. The link is weakest between second and third story in my opinion, strongest between part 3 and 4. Which leads me to recommend watching WoY in these possible orders, based on my preference: (gagaoolala version has better translations)
1. Watch only the first 2 stories, episodes 1 - 10. They are dark, messy, unpredictable and icky in all the entertaining ways.
2. Watch only the first story, episodes 1-5. Second story expands a bit on the first one, but it's more of an alternative run of similar situation and doesn't add that much more to the overall creeps.
3. Watch the first two stories, take a break, then watch story 3 (episodes 1-10, 11-15). The later one is significantly more light, more petty, and less well-thought-out. It's still an okay watch, though.
4. Watch only for the main CP(s) you're interested in - episodes 1-5 for Billy-Seng, 6-10 for Gung-Korn, 11-15 for Mark-Milk and 11-20 for Toru-First (characters of Toru and First are very present in episodes 11-15, but their relationship starts developing from the episode 16 onwards.)
5. Add story 4 to option 3 (episodes 1-10, 11-20), mainly if you are interested in Toru-First relationship.
6. Watch all episodes in the order they were released in, slowly. Some of you might be completionists, but be careful not to rush it. It's quite a heavy watch on its own, mainly because of the darker themes and bad editing/translation choices.
7. Watch only the later two stories, starting with episode 11. I'd only recommend this for people who tried the first story and it was too much for them (emotionally speaking).
Some other remaks about the show, might be minor spoilers:
I was surprised by the DMD cameos/promos/god knows what it was. It didn't fit there in my opinion. I'm biased against the company, so you might not care about it much. But it was an odd choice that affected the stories either way.
It was a missed opportunity not to actually create the twitter polls from @GossipXoxo user as the show was releasing. One thing this show does really well is representing how online fandoms act, and I'm genuinely interested the polls' results from real life fans. It would also be a quirky marketing move that would have cost them next to nothing.
Situation about the translations was messy, even after both AIS PLAY and Gagaoolala starting translating text messages. Often there was too much text, for too short of a period to read it. Which is something that should have been tweaked in editing, especially for important parts. It was exhausting pausing the screen all the time, and rewinding, and even google translating at the start. Some of it was just useless banter, but a lot of it included context that was sorely missing otherwise. If they want to do a story where (social) media plays a crucial role, they need to do better next time.
In conclusion, the series lacks in bigger picture one would expect from their pointed marketing as the whistle-blower. Even if all of those situations actually happened in real life, the show didn't serve as a call to action in any way. It contradicts its own "messages" profoundly, so much you'll even start to wonder what those messages are. And it's not doing it in a clever way! Just plainly confusing, almost alibistic, none insulting and still money earning one. Its aim is shattered on multiple places by separated endings and obscured by bad editing and translation issues. In a way, it's kinda disappointing, considering what it could have been. But it still manages to be an above average and somehow unique BL show, and one I recommend at least trying. If the first story feels too dark or messy for you, give story 3 a chance ?
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